Truck Driver Kevin Roper Fatally Injuring Tracy Morgan Plead 'Not Guilty,' Released on $50K Bail
Kevin Roper, the man driving the tractor-trailer that put "30 Rock" Star Tracy Morgan on his critical condition on Saturday has been released after paying a $50,000 bail.
The veteran actor was critically injured in the accident with one of his friends being killed. The Middlesex County Courthouse decided on June 11 that the driver should be charged with vehicular homicide and assault by auto but was released on bail, New York Daily reported.
According to New York Daily, the truck driver was silent when he appeared on Court. He already proclaimed his innocence on Twitter, but he did not say at all when he was released on bail afterward. His attorney maintained his innocence.
Bradley Ferencz, the judge presiding over this case, took note of Kevin's clean record before the fatal accident that left Morgan's friend dead and the actor himself in a critical condition. But this does not deter the judge from charging him with vehicular homicide and assault by auto.
Roper pleaded not guilty on all these charges.
"We enter a not guilty plea across the board obviously -- the fatality and the remaining counts of assault by auto," Roper's Defense Lawyer David Glassman told the court, CNN reported.
CNN cited before he was released, the judge warned him against escaping or going anywhere without his lawyer knowing.
"Let me just give you a caution, sir," the judge told the defendant. "You make sure your lawyer knows exactly where you are. You go anywhere, you drive anywhere, you go across country somewhere else, you need to be in contact. You understand that?"
"Yes sir," Roper responded.
Roper did not say anything despite the media horde greeted him upon his arrival on the courthouse premises. Most questions focused on his controversial Twitter post, where he proclaimed he was innocent and scapegoated in the crash. His Twitter posts also attacked the media's selective reporting.
"Today we saw why media has turned this country into nothing but a real life REALITY SHOW," read one of the Twitter messages.
"Do they all come to my court date if a certain "FAMOUS PERSON" wasn't involved? Did the media show up for all the other ACCIDENTS this year that a driver was charged with a crime?"
Kevin posted a total of five Twitter messages claiming he was innocent of the crime and critic of the police, who only paid attention when they realized one of the victims was the famous comic.